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Mr. Gold
Skills Without his literal use of Dark Magic, Mr. Gold has found subtlety to be his preferred choice of weapon. He bends the truth, thrives on technicalities, and exploits the weaknesses of others against them, be it their children, their Twu Wuv, their shattered emotions...their very desperation. He's excellent at gauging most people's thoughts and current feelings toward something by reading their expression and subtle hints in body language. He finds he had a firm grasp on how most human thought processes go. Once he knows what a person is after, he can manipulate most anyone with it to get whatever it is he wants from them. And for having lived for so many centuries, he's grown to be quite intelligent and wise! From his time as an alchemist, he knows what substances are flammable and to what degrees, just as he knows what exactly has medicinal properties. He knows and truly believes love to be a hideous weakness, nothing more than a commodity to be eventually lost. That said, though, he still loves his son and Belle dearly, leaving them as major weaknesses for him even though he believes he's already long since lost them both. Gold is still a coward, however, and keeps everyone at arm's length to leave him alone with his thoughts and regrets, and that really just gets tiresome after a while. :c Further, he sustained a knee-injury in his youth, leaving him with a permanent limp and particularly frail. While he can weaponize his cane and put up some sort of fight, it really doesn't take much at all to knock him out. And then there is the matter of his mystical dagger, with which if anyone were to stab him in the heart with, he dies and they take all his powers. D: Additionally, if anyone were to hold said dagger in their possession besides himself, they would have complete and utter control over his actions. Personality Sissy!Rumple Before he was cursed with Dark Magic and perpetual assholery, Rumplestiltskin was little more than an impoverished sheep rancher and wool spinner with a cute as hell son. (WIP LOL) On the surface, Mr. Gold is a calm and collected older man with a particularly chilling disposition and such cold confidence that leaves even the angry town drunk wary of him. He's not all srs business, though, and has on occasion been seen cracking a few, albeit hallow, smiles, and is known to often times be quite sarcastic, almost to trollish levels. Wordplay and enigmatic phrases are frequents in his vernacular, both to bend the truth in order to divert suspicion, and also to mess with a person's mind for funsies. For as long as he's been alive and with all that he's seen, there are exceedingly few others whom he will treat as anything other than a game piece in Chess. A single layer under the surface and you'll see the ineptitudes he does unfortunately carry. He does not give one single fuck about modern day technology -- presumably because he's an old man just stuck in his ways. He prefers antiques, precious items with priceless stories and locked away memories. He prefers meeting in person over speaking on the phone, walking wherever over driving, and making discoveries without the use of the newfangled internet. Technological advancements are terribly impractical and unnecessary. Dig a little deeper and discover just how both impatient and patient he is. He holds such a lack of respect towards most others because he's lost all the faith in humanity he may have once had. Gold has seen countless wars and sacrificial bloodshed over petty disputes, he has seen broken families, and he has seen how despicably greedy the average human being can be. He hates all of it, but by the same token understands that he is no better; perhaps even worse. He understands how truly seductive having power is, how one so desperate to have it can never get enough of it once it's in their grasp. And as he understands how much of a monster he is like the rest of them, he also know how to sympathize with them in his own way. He has, after all, seen it all and experience plenty of heartbreak in his own right. He knows what it's like to think you only have your child's best interest at heart, he knows what it's like to have the one person to capture your heart in a way no one else ever could just die and realize that in someway you are responsible for their passing, and he knows how just the thought of having any kind of power is so tantalizing. When he is sympathizing with someone, he forces them into his own special method of coping; retaining a keepsake of whatever you've lost to personify that regret. There is also a large amount of alcohol abuse involved, but that he generally keeps to himself. He's a sober kind of drunk. With the knowledge of how very monstrous he his comes a significant amount of self-loathing. He doesn't always fancy acknowledging the self-loathing, though, and often times hides it from himself by projecting the hatred onto others. In his more recent dealings with Prince Charming as his once former self, Rumplestiltskin, he had automatically assumed that it was he that had broken Snow's heart by just being a general oaf of a man just as Rumple had done with Belle, and he took her side in the matter (it also helped that Snow was currently wanting to kill the Queen D<). While he is usually so good at reading and interpreting any situation correctly, his crippling regret stood in the way of his judgement and he couldn't see how it was actually Snow that broke Charming's heart, not the other way around. Even though Mr. Gold is an irredeemable jackass of a monster, he is nothing more than a once desperate, now utterly broken soul to his core. There are still traces of that cowardly but devoted father who could stop at nothing to ensure the safety of his son as well as the still cowardly imp who fell head over heels for the perfect woman. There is essentially still a good and decent person buried deep and rooted into the very foundation of who he is. It's this loving person he used to be, his tragic past, and several life times of regrets that fuel his motives today. As such, he's possessive and materialistic because there was a time in his life where he had nothing. He's completely closed himself off to even the notion that someone could love him because his wife would rather be dead than married to a gutless coward, his son couldn't see him as a father anymore after being cursed, and his True Love's association with him provoked such horrible tortures that she ended up killing herself as well. He has an unrelenting soft spot for children because of Bae and the memory of all the poor children drafted into the war and lost their lives. In short, Mr. Gold is a horribly despicable human being with cowardice and vendetta as his reasons for living, and despite everything, there is still the slim possibility of him turning good again, but it's really not likely. Appearance For someone who consistently and seemingly effortlessly strikes fear into the hearts of his neighbors, Mr. Gold is a surprisingly unassuming man. Standing in at a mere five foot eight, he is neither particularly tall or sturdily built. Deep lines in his features and grey in his otherwise brown shoulder-length hair show his age, and his attire typically consists of a vast collection of custom tailored suits. The cane that aids his mobility is ebony in color with an ornate golden handle. Relationships Belle - Significant Other Hiccup Haddock - The Evil Queen - Joshua Kiryu - History Desperate Souls A shit ton of decades ago, Rumplestiltskin was an entirely unimposing individual with a limp and a coward’s reputation. He really wasn’t capable of much other than spinning wool to sell and looking after his son when he could. The Ogre Wars were still waging as they had been for many years, and it got to the point where drafting children was necessary. With his son, the only thing he really had left to live for, just days away from being drafted, Rumple turned to desperate means to save him. After taking the ill advise from an old beggar, Rumple set the Duke’s castle ablaze and stole the dagger used to control the Dark One from within. After sending his son home to wait for him, Rumple then summoned the Dark One, only to find out that he was in fact the old beggar! The Dark One goaded Rumple on, pointing out the stark personality differences between he and his son, and the distinct possibility that he wasn’t actually his. Finally, Rumple stabbed the Dark One in the chest with his own dagger, killing the Dark One and subsequently taking his powers as his own. No longer the same lame individual, Rumplestiltskin returned to his home where the knights were in the process of taking away his son. He killed all of them and scared the hell out of poor little Baelfire. The Return Some months later, Rumple ended the Ogre Wars and led the children home. Even though he had still managed to meet his once noble goal, the Dark One's curse had still taken its hold, and he lorded over the villagers, ever paranoid where his and his son's safety were involved. He harbored no mercy, murdering anyone who would harm Baelfire and do it with a smile. When their mute maid accidentally saw his dagger, he killed her as well, all in the name of self-preservation. After so many months of this, Bae couldn't take what his father had become, and sought the help of the fairies after making a deal with Rumple: if he could possibly find a way to take way the powers, he would have to agree to do it. The Blue Fairy gave Bae the last magical bean in existence and explained that it would take both he and his father to another world without magic. Bae took the new promise of hope to Rumple, who shot it down. Who wanted to be weak and powerless like everyone else? Rumple wanted his son's happiness, but he also wanted to maintain his power. However, Bae forced Rumple out of their home and off into the woods where he tossed the bean and opened a portal to the other world. Rumple freaked out and couldn't follow him, thus breaking his promise and losing Bae. Baelfire made sure to express his anger by shouting 'coward' at him. The very instant Bae was gone, Rumple regretted it and tried desperately to follow him, but to no avail. He called on the Blue Fairy and demanded a way back to his son, and eventually got her to admit that a curse would bring him to him. He would have to sacrifice the thing he loved most, though, in order to enact the curse, and with his son already gone he had nothing more to love, and swore himself off from ever loving again. Throughout the many centuries that followed, Rumplestiltskin worked tirelessly on creating that curse to bring him back to Bae. That Still Small Voice In his earlier career as the Dark One, Rumple had established a working business partnership with Jiminy, who would take the names and stolen possessions of the day to him in exchange for golden thread. On one particular night, Rumple gave Jiminy the sketchiest of potions to free himself from his wretched parents at the simple price that Jiminy leave his parents for Rumple to collect after using the potion. The potion was not used on Jiminy's parents, though, but instead on the parents of an innocent young boy by mistake. Rumple took the puppets while Jiminy was turned into a cricket by the stupid Blue Fairy. Skin Deep As the second Ogre Wars flared, one particular kingdom sent word of promise of gold if Rumplestiltskin were to provide aid. Rumple waited until the last possible moment before answering their call and denying their monetary offer. "You see I, uh...make gold." Instead he asked for the king's daughter as a maid in exchange for helping them in the war. While the king and the betrothed immediately shot down his offer, the daughter agreed to the deal, and thus, Rumplestiltskin brought Belle to his Dark Castle. At first, he treated her as nothing more than another trophy won -- after all, that's all she really was to him, his new possession that he and only he alone could own. More over, she was a practical trophy, fully capable of keeping his estate and collection free of any filth! He took sport in playing with her, trollingher if you will, but when she actually seemed to combat his antics and essentially remind him she was different from his other possessions, he started to treat her like her own person, giving her her own room outside the dungeons and allowing her free roam about the estate. As the time wore on during her employment, he had eventually come to find he even enjoyed her company, moving his wheel from the West Wing Tower to the room he held his collection and where she had spent a good portion of her time cleaning. When she essentially defiled his Dark Castle by bringing in the light and color, he didn't mind it. He entertained her personal questions and asked some of his own, genuinely interested in her answers. He even went so far as to release her from their deal, allowing her the chance to see the world like she wanted. To his actual surprise, she returned later in the evening with a basket of straw. Soon after they shared a kiss, and when his Dark One's curse began to break from True Love's Kiss and his powers started leaving him, he panicked and accused her of working with the Queen with the intent to kill him. He threw he back into the dungeon, and destroyed a good portion of his porcelain collection in a blind fit of rage before kicking her out of his castle altogether. A month later, the Evil Queen came by and fed lies of how Belle was tortured upon arriving home and eventually threw herself off the tower. After he heard news of her death, he gradually became a raging alcoholic. The Shepherd When King George's stolen son was killed in battle, Rumplestiltskin was called on to remedy the situation. While Rumple couldn't actually bring the boy back to life ("Magic can do many things...but not that."), he agreed to bring the King his son's twin brother in exchange for the whereabouts of their family Fairy Godmother. He then went back to the failing farm where he had obtained the first child and made a deal with the twin, promising the same riches they had received the first time should the twin slay the dragon worrying King Midas's boarders. The Price of Gold On the very same night he made the deal with the future Prince Charming, Rumplestiltskin tracked down the Fairy in question and blew her the fuck up before she could grant Cinderella's every dream come true. After explaining to the filthy maid that magic sucks and takes away everything you could ever love, he agreed to allow her her night at the ball in the Fairy's place at the price of an undetermined favor. He poofed up a contract for her to sign, and once the deal was struck, he outfitted her in a blue gown and glass slippers. 7:15 AM Some months later, Rumple appeared behind Snow White when she came to him, seeking aid. After she explained what she needed help with and he was all "RAWRRAWR LOVE SUCKS D<" in response, he gave her a potion to erase all of her memories of Prince Charming, her loved one, so that she may continue on with her life, for the price of one single strand of her hair. Heart of Darkness The potion Rumple gave to Snow changed her into a different person after she took it and lost her memories. When she came to him again, this time with the intent of killing the Queen, he was all too eager to help. He gave her a bow and arrow and a map to the precise location Snow should be when she was to kill the Queen. Shortly after, Prince Charming showed up at Rumple's castle, demanding the whereabouts of Snow. Rumple gave him the same map in exchange for his cloak and sent him off. He extracted a single strand of hair from the cloak and stuffed it in a bottle with Snow's hair strand, thus bottling True Love. The Price of Gold (cont.) Quite a while later, on the night of Cinderella's wedding, Rumplestiltskin returned and crashed the party, stole a dance with her and reminded her of their deal, knowing she'd soon be pregnant and asking for the first born. Some months later, a desperate Cinderella called on Rumple again, trying to save her child by tricking him into a new deal. He signed the contract to her altered deal, and the quill paralyzed him and stripped him of most of his magic. Cinderella's husband disappeared as consequence for breaking her deal and Rumple was promptly sent off to jail. Pilot/The Thing You Love Most Rumplestiltskin only a couple of months locked away in prison, and in that time he received a number of visitors all with the intent of making deals with him. Snow and Charming had gone to him seeking help in preventing the Queen's Dark Curse, and told them that their only hope for defeating the Queen was in their child, who would return to save them all on her twenty-eighth birthday in exchange for the unborn child's name. Shortly after, the Queen had also gone back to him to ask why the Dark Curse he had given her wasn't working. He answered her question (she was to cut out and sacrifice the heart of the thing she loved most) in exchange that in their new world, he was to be granted comfort and she was to do whatever he said should he say 'Please'. Storybrooke After the curse was enacted, everyone in Fairy Tale Land was brought over to the real world, to the small town of Storybrooke, Maine where everyone was trapped in an ageless daze for twenty-eight years. In all that time, Rumplestiltskin now turned Mr. Gold had retained all of his memories and thus free of the daze and completely aware of his surroundings. He took up cello to replace his lost wheel and procured a foster child for the Evil Queen turned Mayor as part of a deal. That foster child left the town when he was ten and tracked down his biological mother, Emma, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, and brought her back. The instant Emma decided to stay in town, the townsfolk were broken from their daze, and Gold was free to resume trolling everyone without suspicion. Of those trollings included his attempt to retake modern day Cinderella, Ashley Boyd's, baby through means of compensated adoption. Emma convinced him to let her keep the child, though, in exchange that she would owe him a favor to be elaborated on on a later date. With Emma now owing him a favor, Gold wanted to ensure her enough power to be able to do whatever he needed of her, and so after Sheriff Graham died, he backed her in the election for the new sheriff. And by backing her, he set the Mayor's office on fire. It was all an elaborate plot to make Emma look good during the election for having saved Mayor Regina from the fire, and then ensuring her victory when she should stand up to Gold and oust him for causing the fire in her favor when she found out about it. After all, while everyone is scared of Regina, they're more afraid of him, and the people would certainly prefer their sheriff to be fearless in that regard. Some months and shenanigans later, Mr. Gold found his house broken into and robbed of an item most precious on Valentine's Day. Emma popped up behind him and scared the hell out of him, and then he very reluctantly gave her the name of who robbed him. Moe French, Belle's modern day father and owner of a florist business, whom he had a recent altercation with in regards to a loan's late fee. Emma recovered every stolen items of Gold's from French's place in half a day, but failed to obtain the one item that really mattered to him. And so, taking matters into his own hands, Gold very casually purchased duct tape and rope, gave modern day Prince Charming a lecture on love lost, and then proceeded to kidnap French and take him out to a cabin in the woods. There he gave French the chance to tell him where his item was and who told him to take it, and when French didn't comply to the rules, Gold proceeded to beat the man to near death before Emma popped in to stop him. He was then sent to jail. Regina paid him a visit while he was incarcerated and offered to strike a deal with him; his precious item lost would be returned if he just told her his name. After a few attempts at playing with technicalities, he finally told her his name was Rumplestiltskin, thus confirming that he remembered everything of their past life. She then held up her end of the bargain and produced the small cup chipped by his True Love nearly three decades ago. Shortly after Regina left, Gold was pulled into Pandora. Pandora History